Improvement in sewing-machines



. 2 Sheets -Sheet 1. L SMiTH. Sewing Machine.

Patented May 21, 1861.

NITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

LO UIS H. SMITH, OF SALEM, NEW JERSEY.

IMPROVEMENT IN SEWING-MACHINES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 32,385, dated May 21, 1861.

To all ttitom it may concern:

Be it known that I, LOUIS HENRY SMITH, of Salem, in the county of Salem and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful 1m provements in Sewing-Machines; and

I 1 do hereby declare that the following is a full,

its connections. Fig. 4 is an end view of one ofthe cloth-holders. Fig.5 is a detached sectional elevation of a portion of the clothholder' carriages in position on the rail.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several figures.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

This machine is particularly designed for the sewing of carpets and for other heavy work where both breadths of the material tobe sewed are laid one upon the other on the same side of the needle-barf Some of theimprovements are, however, applicable to machines in which the needle-bar is worked by an arm projecting over one breadth of the material for the purpose of sewing lapped edges. it

The improvements consist, first, in a novel construction of cloth-holders for matching, stretching, and holding stationary the materials to be sewed; second, in an improved combination ofdevices for imparting an intermittent feed motion to the carriage supporting the sewing mechanism; third, in devices for throwing the feed mechanism out of gear.

A is a table on which the, materials to be sewed are laid, and at the side of which the sewing mechanism moves. 7

B represents the sewing mechanism, which maybe of any suitable construction, supported on flanged driving-wheels Ilf, moving on rails M M, and connected by rods N. The wheels L are firmly secured to their axle l, in order to receive motion therefrom,as hereinafter explained.

O is a cloth-holder mounted on the end of a projecting frame, 0, supported on flanged wheels L, which also move upon the rails M. One ofsuch cloth-holders is applied in front and one in the rear of the sewing mechanism.

The work is held between plates D d, roughened on the faces next the cloth, the upper plates D being pressed to the cloth by means of a screw, 6, workingin a siiding bar, E. The cloth-holder carriages are adjustable, and may be fixed firmly at any point on the rails by the brakes F G. The lower end of G, where it comesin contact with the rail, in ay be faced with leather or india-rubber, and the lower end of F has a flange projecting under the flange of the rail. A spring, H, isfitted on a rod projecting from the top of G, and bears against a flange on the upper end of F, thus causing'F and G to clutch the rail. The brakes are released i'rom the rail by cams at the end of shaft 1 -l. The lever K turns the camshaft and throws the brakes clear of the rail.

The feed movement of the sewing-machine carriage is obtained by means of the traction of the wheels L upon therails M. A part of the face of each wheel is turned off to receive a rubber or leather ring. The traction is further increased by small wheels 0, the shaft which revolves in boxes floating up and down inboxes sliding on theframe. These wheels are pressed against the under side of the flanges of the rails by the springs P P, coiled on rods' passing through the boxes of the wheels. The force of these springs may be regulated by turning the nutsp p at the upper ends of the rods.

S is the main cam-shaft, actuated by a belt, .9, from the crank-shaft s.

S is a crank employed to actuate the machine when it is worked by hand, and to adjust the sewing mechanism when power is employed to operate the machine.

The feed mechanism is representedin detail in Fig. 3. The intermittent motion is given at the lower end of rod U. A spring, X, bearing against the feed-wheel, prevents the carriage from movingduring the interval between the feed movements while the needle is-in the cloth. When the carriage is run back to commence a new seam or to any point on the work the clutch-lever V, the spring X, and the wheels 0 can be thrown out of gear at the same time by turning the hand-shaft Y. This carries a cam, t, at each end, which cams depress the boxes of the wheels 0 and throw the latterclearot'therails. TheeccentricZthrows the spring X clear of the face ofthe feed-wheel, and the arm a, through the medium of the rocker b and the connecting-links, throws the hook to at the upper end of the rod U out of gear with the pin at the end of the lever V.

A spring, 0, is attached to thccloth-presser.

I The lower end of the spring runs between the Stitched in both the cloth-holders, taking care that the figures of the pattern match at the points held between the plates. One of the carriages is then secured by its brake to the rail, and the other close in the rear of the sewing-machine carriage, rolled from it till the work is properly stretched, when the brake of the second carriage is applied. Motion is then imparted simultaneously to the sewing mechanism and its carriage by means of the crank b", and the machine traverses from one cloth-holder to the other, stitching as it goes.

'A new hold is then taken of the cloth in the manner before described, the feed mechanism thrown out ot gear by meansof the hand-shaft Y, and the machine run back by hand or otherwise to the place of beginning. It will be seen that the breadths to be sewed are laidon' one side of the needle.

The machine might be constructed with a long arm, and with similar arrangements to those in my machine for stitching canvas, patented February 12, 1861. The breadths of such carpets as show the pattern on both sides could in that case'be laid one on each side of the needle, with their'edges together, and the needle made to stitch from one selvage to the other; but it is found that carpets sewed on one side of the needle with a straight scam look and wear better 'while the face side is up, and by the time they are turned the ridge formed at the seam on the reverse side is pressed flat.

' For somedescriptions of work but one clothholder is employed.

Having thus described my invention, what I claimas new, and desire to secure by Letters" Patent, is

1. A cloth-holder mounted on wheels running on the same rails as the sewing-machine carriage and independent thereof, and provided with a suitable brake to secure it to the rail at any point.

2. Thecomhination ofthefriction-clutch feedwheel Q, or other suitable feed-wheel, and trao tionwhcels L L, for imparting motion to a sewing-machine carriage, as explained. a

3. The combination of the cam-shaftYy,

rocker 1), wheels 0 0, hooked rod U u, and

spring to, operating to throw the feed mechan ism in and out of gear, as explained.

The above specification of m y improvements in sewing-machines signed this, 22d day of March, 1561,

LOUIS HENRY SMITH.

Witnesses:

()OTAVIUS KNIGHT, L. W. ,BENDRE. 

